The Crow (2024) review
The 2024 version of The Crow isn’t exactly what you worried it would be. It still isn’t good.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Crow
Directed by Rupert Sanders
Screenplay by Zach Baylin and William Scneider
Starring Bill Skarsgård, FKA twigs, Danny Huston, Josette Simon, Laura Birn, Sami Bouajila, Karel Dobry and Jordan Bolger
The Crow (2024) Review
When a new version of The Crow was announced it was met with skepticism from many and anger from some. It’s somewhat understandable. The 1994 version of The Crow is a nearly legendary picture. More importantly, it features an iconic lead performance. But it’s not like this was the first attempt to cash in on the property. There were three other movies already set inside of the franchise. They came and went with little fanfare or outrage. It’s what they didn’t do that allowed them to come and go unbothered. Those films featured protagonists with names like Ashe Corven, Alex Corvis and Jimmy Cuervo. Eric Draven was left untouched by those movies. The comic series gave us many different characters brought back from the dead to follow.
The Crow (2024) brings him back. It isn’t the first time that happened either, by the way. A television series ran in syndication back in 1998 with Eric Draven as the lead character. It lasted one season. I don’t recall there being much anger about it. But then, I don’t really remember the show existing either. It certainly didn’t cause as much fuss as the latest film. Now…to be fair, the Eric (and Shelly) presented here have nothing in common with their 1994 counterparts. I’m not even sure they ever used their last names in the movie. If they do…it isn’t pushed hard. One wonders why they didn’t avoid this altogether by simply naming them anything else.
It feels like the answer is to borrow the emotions already ingrained in fans of the original film. Of course, those are the people up in arms over the choice in the first place. Given that the movie goes out of its way to make these characters very different from the 1994 movie…and how hard it tries to find a new way to present the story…I don’t know why they bothered. Is there that much value in the characters that it is worth angering the people who would be most interested in a new Crow film? I guess the opening weekend box office will tell that tale.
For the purposes of this review…we’re going to leave the discussion about using the character names there. They’re only names, after all. The Crow (2024) treats them as nothing more than that. In fact, in comparison to the 1994 classic, the 2024 version is a story of more and less. It works out ways to tell the story offering more of what you don’t want. As a result, you get less of what you do.
Set any fears of being a shoddy remake of Lee’s movie aside. It isn’t. You can also rest easy knowing that it isn’t a John Wick knock off. It is for one lengthy, bloody scene…but the movie has other ideas on its mind. It introduces more supernatural elements…including a big bad who connects to the otherworldly aspects in a new way. It’s pure comic book stuff…and it isn’t the problem. The Crow (2024)’s biggest problem is that it wants to explore areas of the story that, frankly, aren’t that interesting.
The 1994 film opens after the attack on Eric and Shelly. The 2024 version spends a lot of time with the characters. It’s an idea that sounds swell on paper. In practice, however, it doesn’t work like it should. The more time we spend with human Eric…the less interesting he becomes. That isn’t the fault of Bill Skarsgård. He’s doing what he can with a character that is given nothing on the page. Eric is a sidekick here. An incidental casualty in Shelly’s more fleshed out story. A two-dimensional bystander.
I’ll give you an example. A young Eric opens the story frantically trying to save a horse caught up in barbed wire. His hands retain scars from the incident. Later, when he and Shelly are escaping their rehab center…they climb a fence with barbed wire on top of it. Instead of attaching any meaning to it whatsoever…Eric throws a coat over it and the film cuts away. The Crow (2024) is so uninterested in Eric as a character that it can’t even find a purpose for the one piece of backstory it provides him with. It’s actually jarring that Eric is the one brought back by the crow. Shelly is the main protagonist of the movie’s first act. It’s her story.
There is a reason for it. The story isn’t going to same way that the 1994 movie did. Like the relationship between Eric and Shelly, the movie opts for more lore. The problem is a narrative one. Shelly’s boyfriend is suddenly the main character of a movie that had been all about Shelly. It feels strange. The purpose is to allow Eric to have a bit of an investigation into Shelly’s secrets and uncover the villains he must defeat. Which, again, makes sense on paper. Watching the film treat Eric like a second banana to then thrust him into the spotlight does Skarsgård no favors. You go through the entire film feeling like you don’t know anything about the man you’re supposed to be rooting for. It lessens the character.
It’s not the only thing we get less of. This movie is less fun than the 1994 version. The villains are far less interesting. Gone are the fitting deaths of colorful bad guys. What The Crow (2024) opts for more of fail to cover the number of things that are missing. Still, and this will sound strange after reading all of that, it’s almost commendable that the movie tries so hard to do things differently. There’s a full vision here. It’s the wrong one for The Crow, mind you. It’s the wrong one for Eric Draven and Shelly Webster. And it is most certainly the wrong one for fans of the 1994 film. It may work for a younger audience unfamiliar with that version. Which just returns us to the question of why bother using those names in the first place?
Scare Value
Aside from one scene…The Crow (2024) avoids the pull of being a John Wick clone. That’s the good news. Despite resurrecting characters that should be allowed to rest in peace…it is (almost) admirable that The Crow tries to build a new mythology around the basic story. Unfortunately, it leaves the movie feeling colder than you’d expect. It mines the story for aspects that the superior 1994 version left out. They should have asked if there was a reason.
2/5
The Crow (2024) Link
In theaters – Fandango
